Tag: Kevin Durant

Thunder trio ran at one-third of capacity

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma City didn’t follow its recipe for success in the last two games of the Western Conference finals, yet the Thunder still managed to even the series.

Russell Westbrook and James Harden are supposed to be vital cogs in the Thunder’s Big Three, along with Kevin Durant. The trio combined for 4,452 points during the regular season, leading all NBA trios with an average of 68.4 points per game.

So when Durant started slow in Saturday’s Game 4, and Westbrook and Harden both clanked through difficult shooting nights, it would have seemed to spell disaster for the Thunder’s NBA title hopes.

Instead, the Thunder’s unheralded collection of role players came up with a monster collective effort that kept them afloat until Durant ignited their closing rush in a 109-103 triumph.

Kendrick Perkins, Serge Ibaka and Nick Collison combined to hit 22 of 25 shots, as the Spurs struggled to contain the lesser Oklahoma City players.

“You go into a game with a game plan and try to make other guys beat you,” Collison said, when asked to consider what the Spurs were trying to do in Saturday’s game. “When other guys are able to step up and make shots, it’s tough to defend against that. We’re just going to try to continue doing the same things.”

Particularly shocking was the game for Ibaka, who hit all 11 of his shots en route to a career-best 26 points.

Ibaka’s reputation had always been as a shot-blocking wizard whose shooting range barely extended outside the lane.

“All the (Oklahoma City) bigs really scored (Saturday),” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “Obviously, you put most of your attention on the Big Three there and try to do a great job on them first. But their bigs came through (Saturday) and were just outstanding.”

Westbrook’s slump has peaked in the last two games of the series. After notching career-best averages of 23.6 points and 45.7 percent shooting from the field during the regular season, his numbers have dipped to 8.5 points and 28 percent shooting in the last two games.

But even with those struggles, Thunder coach Scott Brooks said Westbrook has been a productive player in the victories.

“I’m happy with Russ the last two games,” Brooks said. “His numbers don’t stand down and say, ‘Wow, he had a major impact on the offensive end.’ But he did.”

His value has included other elements.

“Russ made timely passes. He set incredible screens. He chased down a couple of plays that probably only Russell could do in the NBA,” Brooks said. “He has a lot of skill and a lot of determination. But I thought the screens to get those shots open for Kevin were just as important as Kevin making them.”

That might have been true in Games 3 and 4. But the Thunder desperately need their Big Three to return to form in order to steal a game in San Antonio.

tgriffin@express-news.net

Spurs embarrassed the right amount

Column by Buck Harvey

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Thunder plugged into energy, desperation, and a man named Thabo.

James Harden stared at Tiago Splitter, and the Spurs stared at the floor. About the time Patty Mills checked in, the winning streak looked so wobbly, it needed one of Tim Duncan’s knee braces for support.

The flow of energy is sometimes mysterious in the NBA, but sometimes it is predictable, too. And while Thursday it was the Thunder’s turn, the Spurs got what they wanted from their first loss in 50 days.

Getting embarrassed can be a good thing.

All of it is new to the Spurs, who forgot how these things feel. But this wasn’t the streak of Wooden’s UCLA that was broken Thursday. It was an NBA streak, and they never last too long.

They never last long, either, when the energy divide is as severe as it was. And something Scott Brooks said afterward told of that.

“That was as well,” he said, “as you can play against the best team in basketball.”

The best team in basketball? The Thunder wanted to prove that wasn’t true.

“We never thought these guys had an advantage over us,” Kevin Durant said Thursday, “even though we lost a few.”

It’s an attitude based on more than bravado. The Thunder played well in the opener, taking a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter, then made Game 2 interesting with a late surge.

The Thunder are exactly what the Spurs coaches thought they were before the series began — scary good. And scarier for the Spurs is to let this series become tied heading back to San Antonio for a Game 5.

But the Spurs, no matter how hard they tried, couldn’t create this same kind of fear in their locker room, not after 20 straight wins. Maybe, too, they began to believe this best-team-in-basketball stuff.

So they were overwhelmed, and Gregg Popovich summed up how it happened. “I think they played smarter than we did,” he said of the Thunder, “and I think they played harder than we did.”

Smarter and harder usually wins, and sloppy never does. The Thunder ended with just seven turnovers, and one of those came at the end when Derek Fisher dribbled out the clock to be sportsmanlike.

The Spurs? They are supposed to be the smart, veteran team, and they looked closer to a team that had lost 20 in a row, with 21 turnovers.

A signpost of how much this series had reversed itself came in the third quarter. Then, Manu Ginobili made a slick behind-the-back pass to Tony Parker, who hit a three. The same sequence happened in Game 2, also in the third quarter, also with a behind-the-back pass for a Parker three.

The difference: The three put the Spurs up by 20 on Tuesday, and after this one, the Spurs trailed by 19.

Brooks moving Thabo Sefolosha to Parker helped OKC, and Sefolosha thought his length bothered Parker. But Parker has been defended by taller players before, and Brooks didn’t see that as the difference.

“I thought Thabo did a good job,” Brooks said, “but I thought the biggest adjustment — we played better.”

It’s that simple? Sometimes, in the NBA, it is. At home, where they hadn’t lost this postseason, facing a 0-3 deficit if they had lost, shouldn’t the Thunder have been breathing fire?

The Spurs couldn’t recreate that, no matter how many I-want-some-nasty speeches Popovich gave. And so now comes a telling moment in the series.

The Spurs lost only one game, but it felt like more than that. The Thunder so swarmed them, so took them out of what they do, that the Spurs were emotionally slapped.

This is what Popovich is leaning on: After Harden was staring and Patty playing, the energy for Game 4 should be equal.

bharvey@express-news.net
Twitter: @Buck_SA

SPURS VS. THUNDER
Western Conference finals
(Spurs lead best-of-7 series 2-1)

Game 1:

Game 2:

Game 3:

Game 4: Saturday – Spurs @ Thunder, 7:30 p.m. TNT

Game 5: Monday – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 6: Wednesday – Spurs @ Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 7: Friday – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

– All times Central
*If necessary

Up 2-0, Spurs on edge despite favorable history

By Jeff McDonald

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Spurs departed San Antonio International Airport on Wednesday afternoon, a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference finals in their pocket and the past on their side.

Throughout the Spurs’ postseason history, such a deficit has been hemlock to playoff opponents. Find yourself facing it, and summer vacation soon follows.

One player on the Oklahoma City roster knows better.

“I think we can beat this team,” Derek Fisher said.

What might otherwise be dismissed as a show of unwarranted bravado from a 38-year-old backup guard comes with a side of been there, done that.

When it comes to winning a best-of-7 series after taking a 2-0 lead, the Spurs are 18-1 all-time. Fisher was there for that one time.

In the 2004 conference semifinals against the Lakers, the Spurs carried a 2-0 edge into Los Angeles before coming undone. Eight years later, Fisher’s miracle 18-footer in Game 5, launched with 0.4 seconds left, remains the signature moment of one of the Spurs’ most disappointing playoff collapses.

As the Spurs prepare for Game 3 against Oklahoma City tonight at Chesapeake Energy Arena, Fisher’s shot — much like the shot-maker himself — is ancient history.

“That happened like 30 years ago,” Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said.

Yet the lesson it imparted endures in those who lived it. A series is not over until one team wins four times.

The Spurs take the floor in Oklahoma City with numerous reasons to feel confident. Their franchise-best winning streak of 20 is climbing the charts, equaled or surpassed by only three teams in NBA history.

They haven’t lost in roughly the length of a Kim Kardashian marriage (50 days) and have won 10 in a row to start the playoffs, one victory shy of the NBA record.

“It’s pretty incredible what they’ve done,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. “To win a game is hard. To win 20 in a row and 10 of them in the playoffs, it’s quite an accomplishment.”

To wary Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, the series could just as easily be 2-0 in Oklahoma City’s favor.

In Game 1, the Spurs trailed by nine heading into the fourth quarter before exploding for 39 points and a 101-98 win. Two nights later, they squandered nearly all of a 22-point lead before locking up a 120-111 victory in the final minutes.

In Game 2, the Spurs survived an 88-point eruption from the OKC trio of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, in part thanks to 34 points from Tony Parker and the team’s highest-scoring playoff game in six years.

“Our offense saved us,” Popovich said. “We scored, and that’s the only reason we won. Because our defense wasn’t very good.”

Oklahoma City would kill for such problems now. In order to avoid elimination, the Thunder must win four out of the next five against a team that has beaten them eight out of the last 10.

Then there’s this: Only three teams in NBA history have fallen into a 2-0 hole in the conference finals and recovered to win the series.

“What we’ve done up to this point doesn’t matter,” Spurs forward Stephen Jackson said. “If we lose tomorrow, it all goes down the drain.”

If the Spurs ever had any doubt about the fragility of a winning streak or playoff edge, Fisher stands as a living reminder.

In 2004, the Spurs had won 17 in a row heading into Los Angeles, matching their longest winning streak until this season. A 2-0 series lead quickly became 2-2, and 0.4 seconds followed in Game 5.

Two nights later, the Spurs’ season was over.

“We did not assume that we’d win four games in a row, which is basically what we ended up doing,” Fisher recalled. “We just focused on winning Game 3.”

Beginning tonight, Fisher hopes to play Sherpa on another such climb. The Spurs aim to keep that part of history from repeating.

jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

SPURS VS. THUNDER
Western Conference finals
(Spurs lead best-of-7 series 2-0)

Game 1:

Game 2:

Game 3: Thursday – Spurs @ Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

Game 4: Saturday – Spurs @ Thunder, 7:30 p.m. TNT

*Game 5: Monday – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 6: Wednesday – Spurs @ Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

*Game 7: Friday June 8 – Spurs vs. Thunder, 8:00 p.m. TNT

– All times Central
*If necessary